Amber Kelleher-Andrews, star of the NBC reality tv series, "Ready for Love," is seen on Monday, April 1, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.

Amber Kelleher-Andrews, star of the NBC reality tv series, "Ready for Love," is seen on Monday, April 1, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Matchmaker helps bachelors 'Ready for Love'

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For fans of romance and happy endings, television's "The Bachelor" provides entertainment, but little in the way of satisfying, lasting relationships, even after 17 seasons on TV. It's hard to tell whether the suitor and the women vying for his attention are searching for love or a swift route to fame.

This rankles Amber Kelleher-Andrews, chief executive officer of Kelleher International in Corte Madera, a matchmaking firm that bills itself as the nation's largest. Who benefits from reality dating shows, she wonders, except the network and its ratings? "There's a stamp that goes with reality shows - train wreck, or drama," she said.

Kelleher-Andrews may help to change this in a new reality dating show called "Ready for Love." She is one of three dating experts who are key figures in the feel-good, prime-time NBC show, which premiered Tuesday. Produced by "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria and hosted by TV personalities Bill and Giuliana Rancic, the show, which has 10 two-hour segments, features three bachelors - attractive and professionally successful - searching for love.

Kelleher-Andrews, professional dating coach Matthew Hussey and relationship expert Tracy McMillan scour the country for prospective love interests. Each matchmaker picks four women for each bachelor. They're sent on a group date, armed with the experts' advice. Afterward, before a live studio audience, mentors grill their proteges about their dating behavior, with an eye toward learning from their missteps.

"This is about people getting smart in their own love lives," said Kelleher-Andrews, whose firm has turned down dozens of offers to appear on other dating shows in the past. "Unlike other reality shows, the producers did not issue a casting call for female participants. These are real people who live all over the United States who have careers and don't want to be stars."

The dating coaches may end up being minor celebrities themselves - not that Kelleher-Andrews needs exposure. The firm was founded by Kelleher-Andrews' mother, Jill Kelleher, in San Francisco in 1986 with a cell phone and an ad in The Chronicle. Today it is a global enterprise with more than 40 matchmakers in 13 cities, including London and Stockholm.

Kelleher-Andrews, who is married to jujitsu champion Nico Andrews, whom she met while working in a restaurant in Los Angeles, is an American Conservatory Theater-trained actor and has appeared on episodes of TV's "Baywatch," "Married With Children" and "Melrose Place," but left the industry to work with her mother - and finds herself in the spotlight again. (She is also writing a blog about the series that appears under the show's title on SFGate.com). Kelleher International, which bills clients from $10,000 to $100,000 depending on the depth and breadth of the search and services, is credited with matching Fortune 500 executives, Hollywood celebrities and members of the British royal family. Nondisclosure agreements prohibit discussing clients by name.

Prospective clients answer a battery of questions that screen their eligibility (job, age, city of residence, relationship and family history, and religion, to name a few). Of the 1,000 people a month who apply, only 130 are taken on as clients, and then matched with at least five prospective partners in the files of Kelleher International.

What do mother and daughter know about chemistry that others don't? Jill Kelleher, who has been at it the longest, chalks it up to in-depth screening and intuition. She previously worked as a portrait photographer, and believes she has an innate talent for sensing the inner workings of her subjects' personalities, and the emotional connections and chemistry that may develop over time.

"Some people think chemistry just happens, boom! Those are the ones you should walk away from," Kelleher said. "Sometimes it's best to get to know them first."

Among her success stories are Marin County real estate agent Debra Roberts, a longtime friend whom she paired with a Sacramento dentist who answered one of the firm's newspaper ads. Kelleher knew Roberts had a sense of adventure, as did the dentist.

"Jill called me at work one morning," Roberts recalled, "and said, 'I've got somebody calling you. His name is Tim. He is the one.' "

The two talked on the phone, set up a series of dates - flying kites at Crissy Field, driving to the Virginia City Hill Climb, a Nevada road race for Ferraris - and eventually went on safaris together. They have been together 18 years, dating long-distance while their young children from previous marriages grew up, and marrying eight years ago and moving to Granite City, north of Sacramento.

"We were in two different orbits," Roberts said. "Our worlds were so different that without Jill, we never would have met."

Kelleher-Andrews believes the new reality series will serve as a teaching opportunity, rather than as a trash TV show that simply tears people down for sport.

Longoria says she does, too.

"I wanted to capture a love story and tell it on TV," Longoria said by e-mail. "The best way for me to do this was to make sure that it is authentic. We chose three matchmakers - the best in the world, who each brought their own methodology. Amber comes from a family lineage of matchmakers. ... So she's the real deal. People trust her experience, and you'll want to listen to what she has to say."

Said Kelleher-Andrews, "I can't wait for people to be able to watch the show and say, 'I do that all the time - I thought that was a good thing, and now I see how men react to that, and it's not,' " she said. "People make mistakes, but they can change the mistakes the very next date. The show is going to make dating fun."